This invention relates to glazing panels for use as a primary or secondary glazing panel for building skylights, and more particularly to glazing panels that conserve energy used for heating, cooling and lighting buildings.
It is well known that skylights represent a significant solar heat input in the summer, and also represent a significant heat loss during the winter seasons. Common practice has been to orient sylight glazing panels at a nearly vertical angle facing north to exclude the summer sun while still admitting some illumination from skyglow, but being incapable of utilizing sunlight effectively for either heat or light. Another practice is to provide a secondary glazing panel as a thermal barrier of transparent material, which serves as a heat barrier to reduce losses through the skylight, but which also stops potential winter heat from entering the room.
The principal purpose of my invention is to provide a skylight glazing panel which is capable of accepting substantially all of the solar light and energy in the sunlight striking the skylight at solar angles near the winter solstice, and which is capable of excluding substantially all of the solar light and energy in the sunlight striking the same skylight at solar angles near the summer solstice, through the use of entirely passive optical elements.